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Reliable publications include established newspapers, academic journals and books, textbooks, and other published sources with reputations for accuracy and fact-checking.
Unreliable sources include blog posts and other self-published works, press releases, and social media posts.
In order for a source to be considered verifiable, other editors should be able to consult the source.
Is the source independent of the subject?
Is the source connected in any way to the subject? This is especially important when writing biographies or about organizations.
For example, if you were writing a biography, sources like the person's webpage or personal blog would not be considered independent.
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Primary sources include first-hand accounts, autobiographies, and other original content.
Wikipedia allows limited use of primary sources, but typically only for straightforward, descriptive statements of facts, and only if they are published and verifiable without requiring specialized knowledge.
Secondary sources should be the main basis for a biography on Wikipedia.
If you're working on a topic related to medicine or psychology, ensure that your sources follow these special guidelines.
If you're creating a new article, consider the following:
Ensure that your topic meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines.
In order for a topic to meet the notability requirement, you must be able to identify 2-3 sources that are reliable, verifiable, and independent of the subject you're writing about.
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Wikipedia has a series of guidelines for writing about different categories of people, such as academics and artists. If you're trying to create a new entry about a living person, please look at these carefully.
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Kapczynski, Amy (2008-03-01). "The Access to Knowledge Mobilization and the New Politics of Intellectual Property". The Yale Law Journal. 117 (5): 804. doi:10.2307/20455812. ISSN 0044-0094.
This is journal entry from an Author who describes Access to Knowledge movement as being a part of New Politics of Intellectual property.
Valauskas, Edward J (2009-01-06). "Review of James Boyle's The public domain: Enclosing the commons of the mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)". First Monday. doi:10.5210/fm.v14i1.2350. ISSN 1396-0466.
This review shares the information on the social good that the A2K movement should have for all people no matter the age, regardless of location and economic background.
"Proposal for Treaty of Access to Knowledge (May 10, 2005 Draft)". Knowledge Ecology International. Retrieved 2025-10-12.
This is a proposed treaty that explains a bit more about the A2K treaty.
Examples:
Luke, Learie. 2007. Identity and secession in the Caribbean: Tobago versus Trinidad, 1889–1980 Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.
This is a book published by a university press, so it should be a reliable source. It also covers the topic in some depth, so it's helpful in establishing notability.
Galeano, Gloria; Bernal, Rodrigo. 2013. "Sabinaria , a new genus of palms (Cryosophileae, Coryphoideae, Arecaceae) from the Colombia-Panama border". Phytotaxa.
This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so it should be a reliable source. It covers the topic in some depth, so it's helpful in establishing notability.
Baker, William J.; Dransfield, John 2016. "Beyond Genera Palmarum: progress and prospects in palm systematics". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.
This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so it should be a reliable source for a specific fact. Since it only dedicates a few sentences to the topic, it can't be used to establish notability.
References
User:EmpiricalThread/Access to Knowledge movement/Bibliography
